To Put Away Childish Things
by Orsino 12
Summary: A short story in three acts exploring what might have happened after the, "Earthlings Welcome Here" episode.
1. Chapter 1

**To Put Away Childish Things**

.

.

.

Act one

Jesse turned her car into the alley that ran behind the Connor's house. Immediately she slowed to a crawl an effort to muffle the sound of gravel crunching under her tires. As the car crept forward, she silently cursed Riley.

The stupid weak little bitch. Jesse had hoped that the slap she had administered earlier would restore a little backbone to Riley but it had the opposite effect. When she called the hotel room she had been sobbing incoherently. Something about hurting herself, being in the hospital and begging Jesse to come. Jesse had gritted her teeth in disgust before she realized that there had been a useful piece of information contained in Riley's infantile pleading. John Connor had gone to the hospital with her. He was there now. He was going to stay with her.

Jesse knew that Sarah had gone off on some kind of trip. Now with John miles away holding poor dumb Riley's hand, the metal was alone in the house. This wasn't the plan but the voice that had been pounding in her brain since her arrival from the future had incessantly ordered her to be flexible. "Adapt , improvise, carry out the mission." All right then, it had to be this way.

As the car reached the point directly behind the Connor house, Derek stepped out from behind a shed. Jesse could see doubt and uncertainty in his expression but that did not concern her. She was confident that she would be able to overcome any hesitation on his part. Derek's love for her could always be used as the ultimate means of control.

Getting out of the car and carefully closing the door, Jesse motioned silently to Derek. "Hey baby", she whispered before she kissed him passionately. Much of Derek's initial doubt was quickly displaced by his obvious desire to hold her, to caress her long dark hair.

"Are you sure about this Jesse?"

"Yes, Derek, yes. The metal bitch nearly killed the girl Connor is dating. The poor kid is in the hospital."

"Why would she do that?" Derek asked immediately. "When she wants to kill she does it. She doesn't just try."

"I don't know, maybe she's glitching again, maybe she just wanted to scare the girl off before Connor started to care too much about her. Whatever reason she had, she did it and we have to take her out. We've got to do something before it gets worse. You know metal can never be trusted."

The last words reached Derek just as Jesse knew they would. Derek's hatred of all metal burned so deeply that all it needed was a little stirring. "All right, all right. But how are the two of us going to do it? She's not just going to lie down and quit."

"Don't worry", Jesse said with a smile. "I have just the thing." Opening the trunk of the car Jesse gestured again to Derek. "Take a look at this."

"Jesse, those are Cozaar pulse rifles." Derek's tone registered utter disbelief. The Cozaar's were the resistance's latest weapon development – a huge rifle powerful enough to bring down the biggest Terminator.

"Not exactly. They are an adaption of the original design. I had them made here. They don't hit as hard as the Cozaars but they'll fire a force eight explosive shell. With two of these we can finish the bitch."

"But how…?" Derek started to ask before Jesse cut him off. Picking up one of the fearsome looking guns she handed it to him struggling slightly with the weight. "Baby I'll explain it all later. Right now we've got to go. Were never going to get a better chance."

Derek made his decision. It was Jesse. He had to trust her. "All right, let's go. I'll take point." They were soldiers again as they crept toward the back door of the house. First Derek and then Jesse silently reached their objective. "I hope Sarah hasn't changed the alarm code," Derek whispered as he typed the numbers on the touchpad.

She hadn't. The panel light went green and Derek slowly pushed the back door open. From inside the house he could hear soft music rhythmically playing.

As Derek and Jesse were preparing their assault, Cameron stood staring blankly out the front window of the living room. She had become a protector with nothing to protect. Sarah had left for the UFO convention yesterday. And then Riley….Cameron was still trying to analyze John's response to Riley's attempt to kill herself. He had held Riley staring up at her as if he blamed her somehow. She could not understand. She had done nothing to hurt Riley but the look into John's eyes had still seemed to accuse her.

When the ambulance arrived he had left with Riley without another word. Shortly thereafter she had found his cell phone lying on the table. She could not reach him. She could not trace him. She was alone. In the solitude Cameron tried to analyze her situation. "I'm a machine. I can't be happy." She had once made that statement to John. That was wrong. She could feel happy and to her dismay she realized she could also feel sadness – a sadness that seemed to deepen every day.

John had moved from a renewed suspicion of her after the, "Allison" incident to what increasingly resembled active dislike. Cameron was becoming convinced that he no longer wanted her around. That realization was painful to her, unbearably painful. Perhaps she should leave. Watch over John from a distance and try to protect him when possible. Then there was an even darker thought. If John really did not want her near him, Cameron questioned whether she wanted to go on at all. Sarah had never fully trusted her and Derek could barely suppress his obvious hatred. Either of them would be happy to remove her chip if she asked.

Cameron shook her head. No.

She could not choose nonexistence. She had a mission – to protect John. She would try to carry it out no matter what else happened. In the midst of her turmoil she suddenly realized that she wanted to dance. It was irrational. It had no logic. She had discovered, however, that in the elegant movements of ballet she could find a form of inner peace. At this moment she desired that peace.

She switched on the radio and found a classical music station. A piano concerto was playing. It was not the single piano work of Chopin that she liked but it would do. Pulling off her shoes and tying her hair back with a rubber band, she began to move slowly and deliberately. One by one she performed a different refined and sophisticated ballet motion. With each position her body achieved a graceful unity with the music. Raising her arms above her head she spun in a perfect pirouette before ending the movement in an curving arabesque penchée à la hauteur. Poised en pointe, she looked like a glass figurine. Entire body balanced on the toes of one foot.

It was in that most vulnerable of positions that Cameron saw Derek and a dark-haired woman surge into the room. They quickly positioned themselves at least 10 feet apart, pointing their guns directly at her.

"You have come to destroy me." Cameron said flatly as she gently uncoiled from the arabesque into battlement tendu.

"Damn right you metal bitch!" Jesse spat out the words. "Your hold on John Connor is over."

Cameron looked at Derek. He appeared conflicted. As once before, the sight of Cameron dancing into that weird ballet position, entire body balanced precariously on the toes of one foot now standing calmly like a little girl with her feet crossed shook his assumptions about the essential nature of metal.

"John won't like this Derek." Cameron spoke without emphasis. She was not pleading. She was simply stating the truth.

The woman responded. "John's not going to know. When he gets home you're just going to be gone."

Cameron weighed her alternatives and found that there were no good ones. Derek and the woman had entered the room from the back of the house and now blocked her from that exit. The door to the other part of the house was open but she was at least 15 feet away. She recognized the type of guns they explosive shells they fired were strong enough to knock her down and if she fell they would be on her. She would not rise.

As she studied her two assailants Cameron sensed a malevolence, a deep hatred in the woman that Derek did not possess. Somehow the woman posed a threat not just to her but to John that Derek did not. Cameron felt a brief sense of despair as she realized that she would never see John again. There was a final gift she could give him. If she could just get to the woman she could kill her. That threat would end.

If she rolled sharply to her right she might make Derek miss. Even if the woman hit her she might still be able to retain enough momentum to reach her. Cameron thought of John and prepared to leap.

Jesse smiled triumphantly. The nagging voice in her head was quiet for a moment. " Okay Derek let's get it done. High low." She raised her rifle toward Cameron's head while Derek aimed at her body. The music on the radio came to an end as a blanket of silence settled on the room. Then the quiet was shattered – not by gunfire but by a fierce and clear voice.

"Stop!"

Three heads turned simultaneously toward the door to the front of the house. Standing in the doorway with a Glock pistol in his hand pointed directly at Jesse was John Connor.


	2. Chapter 2

**To Put Away Childish Things**

.

.

.

Act two

John's appearance had an immediate impact upon all three individuals of the room. Derek, stunned at his nephew's sudden presence let the muzzle of his rifle dip toward the floor. Cameron, who only moments before had wished she could see John one last time before her existence ended now frantically tried to calculate the best means of shielding him from the dangers lurking in that room. Jesse was thunderstruck. It simply wasn't possible, she thought. He couldn't be here. He was at the hospital. And then she realized that Riley had done more than break. The stupid little bitch had betrayed her.

Slowly – carefully- step by step John moved into the room. His youthful face gone, now an unsettling mask of ruthless determination. His eyes never left Jesse's face, the pistol in his right hand never wavered. It was pointed directly at her. John continued to edge forward until he reached Cameron.

"Cameron" he said softly. "Get behind me "

Every component of Cameron's programming told her that she could not do as he said. She could not take refuge while Jesse still threatened him. Once again she prepared to leap at Jesse.

"Cameron" John's voice cracked like a whip. "Get behind me NOW."

Derek looked at John in amazement. The tone of his voice was like an old song the Derek had once heard but never expected to hear again. It was a command that permitted no disobedience. Cameron heard the same thing. There could be only one response.

"Yes John" she said meekly. Fighting against every fiber of her being she stepped behind him – placing his body between her and Jesse's fearful weapon. As she did so she heard a quiet sigh of relief escape from John's lips.

"John, please", Derek said. "You don't know what you're doing."

"I know more than you think I do Derek" John snapped. "I know that you are my uncle, my family and I care about you. But if you ever, ever try to hurt Cameron again, I will shoot you down where you stand."

The voice in Jesse's head had returned louder than ever before. "Adapt, improvise, carry out the mission!" Jesse shook her head wildly and cried out plaintively to Derek. "My God, baby. Listen to him. Listen to what the bitch has done to him. We have to stop this."

"Give it up Jesse. It's over." John eyes had never left Jesse's face. She felt his uncompromising stare drill into her. How did he know her name? How could he possibly know who she was? She had never met Connor in the future. She had once seen him at a distance walking by as fighters leaped to their feet and saluted some with tears in their eyes. But this John Connor didn't know her. Once again the bitter realization filled her mind. Riley, Riley the stupid weak little bitch must have told him.

"John" Derek was pleading now. "She hurt your girlfriend. She almost killed her. She put her in the hospital."

"That's a lie isn't it Jesse?" John responded. "Riley tried to kill herself because she couldn't go on with Jesse's plan. Cameron had nothing to do with it. She was standing beside me when it happened."

"Plan, what plan?" For the first time Derek looked across the room at Jesse with a growing shadow of doubt on his face.

"She has been lying to you Derek. Jesse brought Riley with her from the future to tear Cameron away from me. It's been a Skynet operation from the very start."

"No! No!" Jesse cried out.

"Yes" John snapped. "Everything was already set up. They had a hotel room rented, money, weapons. Everything was ready and waiting. Dammit Derek, think! Who would have sent her here? The resistance wouldn't concoct a scheme to take away my strongest protector. Only Skynet would want that."

Jesse could see the suspicion growing in Derek's face. It was unraveling. It was all coming apart. "Improvise, adapt." The voice was now a constant scream. She shook her head again as her hands tightened on the rifle.

"Jesse" John's voice softened. "It doesn't have to go this way. Put the gun down and walk away."

Jesse tried to listen to him but the voice would not allow it. It crowded out everything except its own commands.

"I called Riley's foster parents and they're going to take her back. She's out. You can get out too. Just put it down and walk away."

The voice locked in her brain had changed. It was the recording that had played over and over and over again when she was bound to the table. "Better he dies than lead the fight with his machine whore. Better he dies than lead the fight… Better he dies…"

In a numb monotone Jesse began to parrot the recording. "Better he die. Better he die. Better…" Slowly she began to raise the muzzle of her rifle toward John.

"Don't do it Jesse" John's tone was softly pleading. It was useless. She was beyond convincing now. The gun continued to move upward.

"No!" In horror Derek realized what she intended to do. He launched himself across the room in a desperate effort to reach her even though he knew she was too far away. He would never get to her in time. His wild shout had had an effect, however. For the briefest of seconds she shifted her gaze away from John and toward him. Mistake.

The pistol in John's hand fired.

Jesse staggered backward as the bullet struck her chest. Her mouth opened to scream but only a gasp left her. The rifle she held slipped downward but she was still struggling to raise it when Derek jerked it away from her grasp. He threw the gun across the room and grabbed Jesse as she sank to her knees. She turned to look at him before falling back into his arms.

The voice was gone. Jesse marveled that there was no longer another person hiding in her brain. There were no loud commands pounding in her consciousness. It was quiet now. Looking up she could see Derek's face contorted with unspeakable anguish. He tried to apply pressure to her wound knowing it was hopeless. The room was getting dark. Why was dark so early in the day Jesse wondered. Tears were pouring down Derek's cheeks.

"Don't cry baby" Jesse gasped. " I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. Fischer… Fischer… I didn't want to hurt… He made me… Fischer… Don't cry, it will all be apples…" Each word took more and more effort. Then she died.

The room was again eerily quiet. Derek held Jesse's lifeless body in his arms. John stood utterly immobile with his hand still griping the Glock hanging limply at his side. Cameron leaned around to look at the tragic scene that unfolded before her.

An animalistic roar of rage broke from Derek as he leapt to his feet. He surged forward toward John who made no effort to evade his uncle's attack. Cameron was not so willing. In a move as graceful and balletic as her earlier dance she spun around John and held out her hand to strike Derek in the chest. Her rocklike immobility brought Derek to a stop. Then as she pushed slightly he fell backwards striking the wall and sliding to the floor beside Jesse's body.

Derek's fury was spent in the same blink of time that it taken to arise. He turned to Jesse and began to stroke her hair. The only sound that could be heard were his tightly choked sobs.

"Cameron" John whispered in a tender voice." Go up to your room and shut the door. I'll be there as soon as I can. We'll talk."

Once again Cameron tried to resist John's instructions. Derek's anger might return. John might be hurt. "I don't think I should leave, John. I should stay until…"

To her surprise John interrupted her by placing his hand gently against her cheek. "I will be all right Cameron. I need to talk to Derek now and it will be better if you are not here." He kept his hand against her cheek and he nodded slightly with an expression of warm affection that she had not seen for so long, for so very long.

Cameron raised her hand and covered his holding it in place against her face. "All right John." She turned to leave the room. At the doorway she looked back to see John kneel beside Derek, put his arm around his uncle's shoulders and lean forward until their foreheads touched. He was whispering something to Derek that even with her enhanced hearing she could not quite pick up. Slowly Derek was nodding his head in acquiescence.


	3. Chapter 3

**To Put Away Childish Things**

.

.

.

Act Three

Cameron possessed an innate ability to calculate the passage of time in precise milliseconds. Yet as she stood staring at the closed door to her room the only measure that came to mind was eternity. Surely she had been rooted in place like a marble statue for an eternity. John had promised he would come but he had not. John had caressed her face and said he would come to talk to her. He had not done that, not yet.

There was a light almost tentative knock at the door. "John?" Cameron struggled to maintain the level of her voice. "Is that you John?"

"Yes. May I come in?"

Cameron jerked open the door. John was standing stiffly erect the doorway still wearing the expression of cold determination she had seen when he confronted Derek and Jesse. As he stepped into her room his face abruptly changed as if a mask had dropped away. He was 17 again and his face was ashen grey with guilt. He pulled the pistol out of his belt. He stared at the gun with disgust as if it had become some vile thing before placing it on the dresser. Without a word he slumped into a chair and buried his face in his hands.

Cameron had been rehearsing a series of lectures. She planned to remind him of his importance, to tell him that it had been stupid to risk his life for her, to tell him how displeased Sarah would be at the chances he had taken. Suddenly those words were wrong.

She knelt on the floor in front of the chair where John was sitting. Reaching up she took his hands in hers and gently pulled away from his face. "John, please listen to me. You did what you had to do. You must not feel guilty. The woman would have killed you."

John lifted his gaze until he met Cameron's eyes. "Cameron I understand that. I'm not sure if Derek will ever forgive me but I can deal with all that."

"Where is Derek?"

"He's taking care of Jesse", John said. " I don't think he will want to see me for a while. That's not what's tearing me up."

Cameron was confused. "I don't understand."

"John swallowed as if each word he spoke was burning his throat. "Cameron, I almost left them get to you. If I had been even a few seconds slower they would've destroyed you. I would have lost you. Oh God, I would have lost you. I would not have been able to bear that. "John slowly drew in another deep breath before continuing. "You see Cameron, I love you. I have loved you from the first moment I saw you back in New Mexico."

Now her hands were in his and he tightened his grip as he leaned forward to look even more directly into her brown eyes. "I have tried to deny it, to resist it, to tell myself that you were only a machine, a reprogrammed killer not really that different from Cromartie or any other Terminator I've seen. And yet no matter how hard I tried I couldn't convince myself. Even when I treated you so badly, even when I was with Riley I felt empty without you."

Looking up into John's face Cameron started to speak but before she could utter a word he placed his fingers lightly across her lips. "Let me get this out Cameron. You need to hear all of this from me now. I know that you came here to protect me. I just want you to know that I will protect you too. You are more precious to me than I can say. I will not go on without you. If I cannot have you with me then the future can damn well take care of itself."

Cameron felt almost dizzy from a sudden disorientation. There should be a correct response, a word or an action that would fit her programming but nothing occurred to her. The only thing that seemed right was to lay her head in John's lap while his fingers released the band that held her hair back and let her long brown locks flow into his hand. Minutes passed before she raised her head to try once more to speak. Something seemed wrong. Her vision had become blurred. John's face was obscured by a mist.

John smiled slightly. "Do terminators cry, Cameron?"

Cameron touched the corner of her eye and felt the moisture on her fingers. "I do" she said in quiet surprise.

John slid out of the chair onto his knees on the floor facing Cameron. Gently he took her cheeks between his hands and softly whispered, "Close your eyes." He tilted her head forward and softly kissed her right then her left eye. With her eyes still closed she could feel John's lips move down her face before pressing first lightly and then insistently against hers.

Cameron was almost overcome by what she could only characterize as absolute longing – – a sensation that she did not even know she possessed. Moving her head back slightly she looked directly into John's eyes and saw a momentary confusion swimming there. The thought that she did not welcome his attention must have passed through his mind but Cameron quickly disposed of that notion. Their lips met again and she answered passion with passion. Their arms circled each other in an embrace that looked as if it could last forever.

Abruptly Cameron leaned away from him and with her dancer's feline grace rose to her feet. Still on his knees John looked up at her inquiringly. No words were spoken as she held out her hands and pulled him to his to his feet. Gently but insistently she led him towards the bed that she had never used. She intended to use it now. Cameron sat down on the edge of the bed and opened her arms to him.

John's voice was husky, nearly choking from a motion. "Cameron you don't have to do this. You are not a toy."

She lifted a finger to her lips. "Shhhh" With a casual ease she pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it on the floor. A moment later her red bra joined it. Once again she spread her arms to him.

It was early evening and the dark shadows of dusk were gathering outside the house. Inside Cameron's room the light was also fading. To John Connor, however, it felt as if the sun itself was shining in his face. The beauty of Cameron's body literally took his breath away. Quickly kicking off his shoes and unbuttoning his shirt he joined her on the bed. For another long moment they embraced and kissed again. Then Cameron leaned back onto the bed gently pulling John with her. Looking down into her eyes John could see the tears forming again. "I know I'm not a toy" she whispered. "I want this. I want you. I love you."

Cameron's room echoed with the sounds of youthful desire and nervous laughter as passion and inexperience collided. Desire proved to be the more powerful player. It had its own way of working out the uncertainties of the situation. Soon the quiet expressions of endearment were replaced by the rhythmic creaking of the bed. John and Cameron's lovemaking found its own tune – a song played more than once in that long dark night.

During that time Cameron discovered in herself a physical capacity for love that her programming had never even suggested. She found something else as well, something even more profound than just the ecstatic pleasures of the night. In the awareness that another being loved her, loved her so completely that he would willingly sacrifice his life for her, Cameron found herself. Her life took on a justification that went beyond any computer program. She was not just a machine, she was the love of John Connor's life.

She remembered when she had made the statement to him. "I'm a machine. I can't be happy." She knew now that that wasn't true. She could be happy. She was happy. In her contentment she wished that she could freeze time in place and stay where she was forever. He loved her and she wanted nothing more.

Gradually the cloaking darkness yielded to the insistent glow of early-morning. The soft natural light shining through the window revealed the intertwined nude bodies clinging tightly to one another on the bed. John still slept peacefully, his breathing easy and unforced. Cameron lay on her side, her head resting on his shoulder, one shapely leg draped over his and her arm pressing gently against his chest. The girl who never slept had not moved for nearly 2 hours content to lie in his arms and to memorize every line of his sleeping face.

John's eyes opened and he looked with open adoration at Cameron's face inches away. He leaned forward to kiss her and as their lips touched Cameron cell phone on the table beside the bed rang loudly. Both leaped out of bed as if shocked. Telephone calls were rarely routine matters in the Connor house.

Cameron looked the recognition code on the cell phone screen. It was Sarah. Quickly she texted her response code and heard Sarah's voice. John had grabbed his clothing from the floor and was hurriedly dressing as Cameron responded to Sarah's call. "Yes, yes. Are you… Yes he is here. I'm coming. I'm coming right now Sarah. Goodbye."

John had looked up sharply when he heard his mother's name. Cameron looked at him oblivious to her nudity. The determined Terminator expression was back on her face. "John, Sarah's in the hospital. She's been hurt."

"Hurt?"

"She has been shot."

"Good God" John said. "How bad?"

"He says it's not bad. She will be all right." A soft note of reassurance slipped into Cameron's voice. "She still needs help. She wants me there."

John picked up his pistol as Cameron began to dress. "She wants both of us" he said.

"John you should not…"

"Cameron" John interrupted holding up his palm toward her. She instantly saw on his face the same unyielding determination he had displayed when he confronted Jesse and Derek – – when he had saved her from certain destruction. "We are going together Cameron. That's the way it's going to be from now on."

"Yes John."

In silence they finished dressing. Cameron put on her leather jacket and retrieved her pistol from the drawer where she kept it. Slipping it into the small of her back she watched as John did the same with the Glock.

"Let's go" John said.

As Cameron came around the bed he held out his hand. Without hesitation she grasped it as their eyes met. There were no words necessary now. They each nodded and hand-in-hand they hurried to the door.

The end


End file.
